National Day of Action on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

author: Relay

While most Americans celebrate Independence Day, trade negotiators and corporate lobbyists from throughout the Pacific Rim will be meeting in San Diego over the week of July 4th for a major trade summit aimed at rushing the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards completion. In San Diego and throughout the country, labor, environmental, immigrant rights, family farm and Occupy activists will be coming together to take actions that drag the TPP out of the shadows and expose it to the light of day!

In Portland, activists will be meeting at noon on July 2nd ? the opening day of negotiations ? at Pioneer Courthouse Square. After a brief update about the work of our allies in San Diego and across the country, we'll then march and caravan together to local branches of three of the big corporations that have been pushing the TPP: Verizon, FedEx and Wal-Mart. These corporations are among the approximately 600 that have been granted special "cleared advisor" status to review, comment upon and draft proposed TPP text, while ordinary Americans have been barred from even seeing what's been proposed in our names.

We'll hear one brief speech at each stop about the ways in which the TPP threatens the economy and environment ? and then we'll pose for funny pictures that will be used during a creative action in San Diego later that week targeting U.S. negotiators.

Free ride space will be provided, but we need you to RSVP online so that we have enough cars lined up. The entire action is expected to take 90 minutes to 2 hours ? but the first stop is right across the street from Pioneer Square, so if you can only stay for a short while please join us there!

Background: What is the TPP ? and Why Does It Matter Now?The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is poised to become the largest free trade agreement ever. The massive trade and investment pact is currently being negotiated behind-closed-doors between the United States and countries throughout the Pacific Rim. Current negotiating countries include the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, but the TPP is also intended as a "docking agreement" that all Pacific Rim nations will join over time. Canada, Japan and Mexico are already pressing to do so.

Powerful corporate interests are pushing for the TPP to: Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally Create new tools for attacking environmental and consumer safety standards Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies Further concentrate global food supplies, displacing family farmers and subjecting consumers to wild price fluctuations Institute longer patents that restrict access to affordable, generic medications Instead of being debated out in the open, the TPP has thus far been negotiated in the shadows. Approximately 600 corporate lobbyists have been given access to the TPP negotiating texts. Meanwhile, the general public has been barred from even reviewing what U.S. negotiators have proposed in our names.

The thirteenth major round of TPP negotiations ? and perhaps one of the last ? is taking place in San Diego from July 2 to 10. There will be a variety of actions in San Diego at that time ? but people of conscience throughout the country are needed to help ensure that the world isn't saddled with another back-room trade deal that benefits the 1% at the expense of the global majority.

Elizabeth Swager, Assistant Director of Oregon Fair Trade Campaign will appear on A Growing Concern this evening, 6/22/12, live on Comcast cable channel 11. She will be discussing Free Trade Agreements in general and the Trans Pacific Partnership in particular.